For Father Jerry, It’s Another Day at the Circus

Standing in a dirt parking lot with a lion cage a few steps away, the Rev. Jerry Hogan was asked by a circus performer to hear a confession. No problem.

Hogan remembers the big cat, which was close enough to hear everything said: “It’s a good thing he couldn’t talk, because he could’ve broken the seal of confession.”

“Father Jerry,” as he is known, tells the story in his office at St. Michael’s Church. Decorated with circus posters, filled with small, bright model trains and other souvenirs of life on the road, the room is where Hogan’s two lives overlap.

The vicar of a bustling Catholic congregation in North Andover, north of Boston, Hogan is also on the road more than 100 days a year as the official chaplain for more than a dozen traveling circuses.

“I love my priesthood and I love the circus,” the 50-year-old priest said. “Here I am being able to do what I was called to do, and sometimes I’m at the circus. To combine both professions, it’s exciting.”

Hogan is the third official circus chaplain for the U.S. Catholic Conference, which also provides clergy for migrant farm workers.

Working with Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey, the Big Apple Circus and other shows that crisscross the country, Hogan prepares families for baptisms and confirmations, counsels them during tragedies and hears confessions.

During a visit to the Vatican, he gave Pope John Paul II a circus jacket.

“He loves the circus,” Hogan said of the pope. “But he can’t get out much, so they bring the acts in.”

And of course he does weddings.

Hogan married fellow clowns Karen Rylander and Greg DeSanto last year, helping the couple pick out flowers and providing support.

“He’s absolutely fabulous,” Rylander said. “I remember before we got married there were so many days he’d walk down the hall and I’d say, ‘I need to talk to you.

“I don’t know how he does it but he’s always there for me.”